


Choices and Pack

by Kalira



Category: Naruto
Genre: Babies, F/M, Family, Fluff, Hatake Clan-centric, Kakashi's mother - Freeform, Kid Hatake Kakashi, Pack, Sakumo Week, Sakumo Week 2020, clan dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25970572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalira/pseuds/Kalira
Summary: Sakumo and his beloved mate discuss their small, but growing pack.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi's Mother/Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Sakumo/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 68
Collections: Kalira's Sakumo Week Stories (2020), Sakumo Week 2020





	Choices and Pack

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Sakumo Week](https://sakumoweek.tumblr.com/post/616294351828664322/welcome-to-the-official-sakumo-week-blog-starting), Day 2: Clan
> 
> This is largely fluffy family love set very shortly after Kakashi's birth, but there are some hints of sadness . . . especially if one thinks of how canon turned out later in Kakashi's life.

“What’s that look for, darling?”

Sakumo extended his hands to his mate, and she favoured him with an indulgent smile as she clasped one for balance to settle down at his side, their cub in her arms, asleep at her breast. Sakumo leaned in and nuzzled her cheek, brushing a kiss over the wine-red fang inked there. “I love you, mate.” he said softly. “I was thinking.” he explained.

“I love you, too.” Kari returned, nuzzling and nipping gently, small fangs scraping along his jaw. She made a prompting noise as their eyes met once more, rocking Kakashi.

Sakumo glanced down at their cub, his heart _aching_ with love. “My pack was gone - my clan gone, save for me, all I had were-” he paused, because it wasn’t that his friends, his _team_ were lacking, only. . . “I had my team,” he said, shifting a little, trailing a fingertip over his mate’s arm, “and my wolves, but. . .”

“A lonely life, for a creature born for a pack.” Kari said gently, with the easy understanding she had always had for him.

“Yes.” Sakumo raised his eyes to her yellow-amber ones. “And then _you_. . .”

Kari grinned, wide and faintly wild. Sakumo’s heart tightened and he kissed her nose lightly.

“You gave me a pack once more, in you, my beloved mate, and now. . .” Sakumo looked down at their cub. “Now Kakashi as well.”

“For now.” Kari said, shifting a little. “He should have siblings, you know.”

Sakumo startled, and Kari laughed, bouncing Kakashi a little as he stirred. “Not right now, not too soon,” she admitted, with a wrinkle of her nose, “but . . . soon, still. When Kakashi is on his paws and I’m back to my old self.”

Sakumo nuzzled her cheek. “You want a big pack?” he asked lightly, and Kari hummed, a soft sound that caught low in her throat. She tapped his arm, and he moved, allowing Kari to nudge up against his side.

Sakumo obligingly wrapped his arm around her, warm and lean against him. He closed his eyes for a moment. Kari _had_ a large pack - the pack she had left behind, to some degree, when they mated, but they were still there, her clan. Unlike his own, the Inuzuka were not fading away, being forgotten. Left to one lone wolf who had never been born to be so.

“I do. I know we spoke of it a little, before we mated - and before Kakashi,” Kari flashed a smile, “but I have always wanted many pups. Would you be happy with that?” she asked, licking her lips. “I know we’ve discussed it in the past, but now we have the one, things might have changed. . .”

Sakumo hugged her tight, resting his brow against hers and nipping her lower lip. “I would love to have more cubs with you.”

Kari reached up, sliding her hand over his neck and behind it, clasping gently, and kissed him, fierce and happy. Sakumo shivered and sank into it, dropping a hand to support her arm under Kakashi as he pressed a little closer.

With a soft little growl of pleasure, Kari twisted further into him herself, deepening the kiss. She slid one leg over his thigh, shifting Kakashi between then, then gasped, breath catching and muscles tensing.

Sakumo quickly took their cub fully into his own arms, catching his mate to support her and crooning comfortingly. “You’re still healing, my love. Be careful.”

“I am not a patient creature.” Kari said unnecessarily, with another tiny growl - this one much less pleased. Sakumo laughed, rocking her and their cub both, even as Kakashi stirred, burbling quietly.

“I know, my love.” Sakumo kissed her hair. “You have done a wondrous thing, and your body needs the time. Mm?” he coaxed.

Kari growled again, but it was almost playfully sulky this time as she settled her head on his shoulder, her fingertips trailing lightly over their cub’s face. Kakashi mouthed at her fingertips, bright blue-grey eyes fixed on her hand.

Sakumo wondered if they would stay the stormy colour of his own, or change to the fierce amber of his mate’s. He wondered, for that matter, whether Kakashi would inherit his own wolf fangs or the smaller, doggish ones of Kari’s clan.

The thought gave him pause once more, and he sighed, nuzzling his mate’s hair and taking in her scent. It was rich and slightly strange in the way it had become since she birthed their cub, but beneath that it was earthy and faintly tangy and familiar.

“I’m sorry.” Sakumo said, and Kari straightened, tilting her head to look at him with a curious whine. Sakumo looked at their cub, settling Kakashi more cosily against his thighs and allowing Kakashi to cling to one of his fingers with a smile. “You made yourself my pack - we’ve built the beginnings of a pack of our own, and I adore you even more for it.” Kari made a fond sound, nuzzling him. “You also have your clan; I try not to forget we are not your only pack.”

Kari shifted beside him and Sakumo kept his eyes on their cub. Her fingers brushed Sakumo’s cheek and jaw, tilting his head up, and his breath caught as he met her eyes, warm and bright.

“ _You_ are my pack, darling.” Kari said, voice thrumming softly. “You and our cub,” her lips curved into a sweet smile that just showed her little fangs, “who will most definitely be a wolf like his father.”

Sakumo began to protest, and Kari shook her head. “I’m his mother, I know these things.” she said lightly, as she had been for nearly a year - since they had discovered her pregnancy.

“As you say, my love.” Sakumo conceded gracefully, and was rewarded with a soft kiss.

“I left my first pack for _our_ pack.” Kari said simply, fingers curling, knuckles brushing the softer underside of his chin. “They are my clan, but they are not pack. Not any more.”

“I love you.” Sakumo said again, his throat tight. “I cannot imagine. . . You are. . .”

“We fit, darling. You and I, and,” Kari smiled, pushing her shirt open as Kakashi began to fuss, “our cub, our _first_. Far better,” she added as she held her arms out for their cub; Sakumo helped her settle him in her arms, and she brought him up, guiding him to her breast, “than I ever was among my clan, or ever would have been.”

Kakashi’s fingers flexed on the generous curve of his mother’s breast and she rocked him, a shiver running through her as she let out a soft, barely audible groan. Sakumo remembered the squabbles and more, the distance and confusion between Kari and the other Inuzuka he knew, and he had listened to Kari’s distress - and anger - when her choices had been challenged by some of her family.

Sakumo cupped a hand over his mate’s wrist, meeting her eyes as her head came up. “Our pack.” he agreed, and leaned in to kiss her cheek, nuzzling affectionately and moving so that she could lean against him.

Kari whined, soft and content, as his arms wound around her. She cuddled against Sakumo’s chest cosily, her own arms supporting their cub, her head tipping to rest against his collarbone and neck.

“A strong pack,” Kari said, voice low and almost lazy, “strong and quiet and happy.”

Sakumo’s breath caught and he smiled into her hair. Yes. However many siblings they gave Kakashi, one day - and he felt breathless and giddy at the images his mate’s words had sparked in his mind; more cubs, running about the grounds, playing with Kakashi, the eldest and biggest, tumbling over one another.

 _Their pack_ was solid and strong, from how it had begun - built on the love Sakumo and Kari had for one another, and their _choosing_ one another - to what was now the three of them, to however large it would one day grow.

**Author's Note:**

> I created Kari a while ago, and prior to this had only shown her in memory; I have been wanting to write her in the here and now (she deserves better than to be yet another dead mother, even if not nameless, added to Naruto 'verse).


End file.
